Saturday, 28 January 2017

Three days on the Savannah

Our experience at the Noboisho camp was indescribable. From lions to hawks and cheetahs to leopards our stay was magical. The camp was luxury standards with incredible staff and great gudes. The staff was Masai, coming from the nearby villages and had extensive knowledge about their culture, history, and the flora and fau

na of the area. We saw all of the animals we wanted to...as well as a live kill by a lioness (fascinating) and a cheetah and her cubs eating their recent kill.

The leopard however had elluded us and we dispaired at seeing this very well camaflaged and skittish creature.

On our last daylight gamedrive, our guide stopped to show us a bird and noted the baying of jackals in the distance. He sped off in that direction, explaining that they often bay to inddicate a cat in the area. We came upon a dry river bed, on the other side of which we could hear the jackals. All at once a herd of elephants started trumpetting and stomping the ground...a sight to behold and thunderous noise to hear, and then over the ridge came the leopard! She had been chased from her meal by a hyena and had run amidst the elephants who had objected. We were delighted when she came towards us and gave us a full view of her!

Our list was now complete, we had seen and photgraphed the big five animals, so called because they were the ones once hunted for their skins and trophy value and were most difficult to hunt on foot. Safaris today still try to see the big five but photography is the goal...the big five are-
The lion

The Cape buffalo

The leopard

The Rhino.

We saw four of the five at this camp, although we had seen all but the leopard at the camps prior to arriving at Noboisho.